News

Dave Durenberger ‘59, who served 16 years in the U.S. Senate, has died at the age of 88.

Born in St. Cloud, Minnesota,  In 1955, Durenberger graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville. The top cadet in his ROTC class, he became a lieutenant in the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, and later a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. He enrolled at Minnesota Law, and graduated in 1959, practicing corporate law.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, engaged in a lively discussion on social justice and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy at the Law School’s eighth annual MLK Convocation yesterday.

Mahlon Floyd Hanson ’69, a former judge for the Minnesota Workers Compensation Court of Appeals and the Miami Immigration Court, died on Dec. 29 at the age of 77.

Hanson received both his bachelor of arts and law degrees from the University of Minnesota. In addition to his judicial service, he served as an assistant counsel for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Minnesota and later in Miami. 

Hanson also served as a Staff Judge Advocate Officer in the U.S. Army on active duty and as a reservist. He retired as a Colonel. 

On December 20, 2022, Minnesota Law students Emma Kruger, 2L,  and Joshua Gutzman, 3L, successfully argued for a conditional reprieve for a 16-year-old client before the Minnesota Board of Pardons. Kruger and Gutzman are students in the Clemency and Child Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinics, respectively.

Suzanne Mead, a 2L at Minnesota Law, has big plans to pursue a career in international human rights law advocacy after graduation. Mead chose this area of work because it combines her immense passion for helping people with her interest in the Mandarin language, which she has studied for well over a decade. Because of Minnesota Law’s reputation of public interest law programs and the notoriety of the Human Rights Center (HRC), it was Mead’s first choice when picking a law school. 

Former UI president Willard "Sandy" Boyd ’51 died on December 13 at the age of 95.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boyd received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Minnesota. He went on to obtain Master of Law and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees from the University of Michigan.

A woman was absolved of liability from a more than $335,000 federal tax liability accrued by her ex-husband thanks to students in Minnesota Law’s Ronald M. Mankoff Tax Clinic.

Different students have worked on the case since the beginning of the 2019 academic year, according to Associate Clinical Professor Caleb Smith, who oversees the Tax Clinic. In addition to the federal tax savings, a clinic student’s persistent efforts saved the woman nearly $24,000 in state taxes.

Minnesota Law School will launch a Gun Violence Prevention Clinic in January 2023. The clinic is believed to be the first in-house law school clinic in the nation with a focus on promoting gun violence prevention through strategic litigation.

Julian Edward Collins ‘78, a retired circuit court judge, died on December 1 at the age of 78.

Collins was elected to the bench of Columbia County in Florida in 1988. After 11 years on thje Columbia County bench, he was appointed a Circuit Court judge. Collins held that seat for the next 14 years, until he reached the state’s mandatory judicial retirement age of 70. He served about four of those years as chief judge,

The University of Minnesota Law School, through the generous support of the global law firm Jones Day, has established a new scholarship and fellowship program to enhance the development of a robust pipeline of diverse talent at the Law School and in the Twin Cities legal community.

The Jones Day Diversity Fellowship provides the recipient with: